Hitchin's Café 77 saw their burgers hailed as the "best ever" by a judge, as they finished second at the British Street Food Awards heats for the south east.

The Bancroft business was selected as one of 12 finalists from 3,000 entries, coming just behind Hash Hut in a close contest at Blue Collar Corner in Reading on Saturday.

Café 77 still received plenty of praise, with head judge James Greatorex – head chef at fine french cuisine restaurant L’Ortolan – calling it "the best burger he'd ever eaten".

Owner Rowan Patel was delighted with the result, telling The Comet: "We're pretty chuffed with the result.

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"The main finals are in August but we've not made them yet. Only the winner from this weekend went onto the finals, but there are some wildcard spots available so we could get one of those.

"But, obviously finishing second out of 3,000 entries is amazing. We were amongst some esteemed company.

"We were the only burger business at the awards, so that makes it even bigger to finish in second, up against some really good and unique cuisine.

"The head judge said it was the best burger he'd ever eaten so that was very high praise."

Rowan was also delighted to see his hard work over more than a decade of business receive recognition at an awards event.

"We've been going for around 13 years now," he said.

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"We've got a shipping container in Codicote converted into a kitchen and a food truck to do all sorts of events, but the big step for us was to have a proper shop.

"We opened in Hitchin in October 2021, but we've been around for a long time as a business.

"I started it on my own back in 2010, and it's been a long road as a company. Thankfully it's just grown and grown so it's nice to receive that recognition."